"the Truth" of the matter is, Pierce is old news. Pierce is not an upgrade. I'm getting tired of Doc trying to get the band together. he can't be drawing from the same well all the time.

Dunkathon

06/30/2014 - 11:49 PM PST

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clipper*joe wrote:

No more Celtics!!!!!!

"the Truth" of the matter is, Pierce is old news. Pierce is not an upgrade. I'm getting tired of Doc trying to get the band together. he can't be drawing from the same well all the time.

I would take Pierce, but only if Barnes/Dudley were already traded away for someone else, if there was a need for a backup SF, and if he was willing to sign for the Vet's Min. Otherwise, it's a no go. He really should've retired a Celtic instead of doing all this Brooklyn nonsense.

ClipperKyle32

07/01/2014 - 12:16 AM PST

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@ESPNSteinLine: Clippers, I'm told, believe they have real chance of stealing Paul Pierce away from Nets now that Jason Kidd no longer coaching in Brooklyn
If we trade Dudley and Barnes and sign Ariza with Pierce....

Hope to never see Pierce in any LA uniform. That includes the LA Galaxy, Kings, Dodgers, and Sparks too. Hate this guy.

clips4life32

07/01/2014 - 12:44 AM PST

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I hear you, I never was a big Paul Pierce fan either, but I feel that this would be a great opportunity to max out the SF position on the cheap to get maximum return. There is a great chance that Pierce would be rejuvenated playing with Doc, a system he knows, and with CP3 and Blake.

david

07/01/2014 - 12:44 AM PST

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If the Clippers can get him for cheap (maybe $3-4 mil max), he'd certainly be an upgrade over Barnes (at least on offense) & Dudley. Tons of playoff experience, solid rebounder, and of course can still hit the 3 and post up.

clipper*joe

07/01/2014 - 12:50 AM PST

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He's 36 years old. There is no "rejuvenated" in his vocabulary. We'll be crying for Dudley when he has to guard the elite wings.

slestack11

07/01/2014 - 12:51 AM PST

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I've always thought that Paul Pierce was going to eventually be on the Clippers after Doc Rivers became the coach. It was just a matter of time...now I'm just hoping that Pierce will take a massive pay cut to play at home for a coach he is very close to. Barring any sorts of injuries, Pierce would be a great add especially for the playoffs.

clips4life32

07/01/2014 - 12:59 AM PST

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LOL, his defense won't be top notch, but with Doc and his emphasis on team defense, it will make up for this deficiencies on D.

clipper321

07/01/2014 - 01:04 AM PST

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Only scenario I would except for Paul Pierce would be a minimum contract off the bench with the provision that we no longer have Jamal Crawford stinking it up on defense.

TheDude

07/01/2014 - 01:22 AM PST

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If we sign Pierce it needs to be as an x factor bench player and pay out accordingly. if he's coming out for the BAE or less it's great to have him but I really hope he's not Doc's answer to our SF problems.

letitbled

07/01/2014 - 01:33 AM PST

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Nobody in heir right mind will be crying over Dudley's departure.

Jerediscool

07/01/2014 - 02:07 AM PST

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ClipperKyle32 wrote:

The conspiracy to why we waived the greatest Clipper of all time

I'm not sure if you're kidding or not....... you're kidding right?

ClipperDodger1214

07/01/2014 - 03:02 AM PST

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He showed in that Toronto series that he can still be a clutch player. While he didn't shoot very well, he can still bring it on D. I think he can have a decent shooting year on this team with some open looks. He can't be a worse gamble than Dudley that's for sure.

kjavis

07/01/2014 - 03:14 AM PST

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Pierce would be anything but a steal, we had pretty bad track record of bringing vets that are on their decline on the verge of retirement, billups, antoine, hill come into mind...

clipperboy24

07/01/2014 - 07:43 AM PST

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Billups was actually working great until he got injured. We were one of the top teams in the league. But that is the risk you take with these old veterans, not quite the same players they were and you never know when the injury bug will hit.

clipper*joe

07/01/2014 - 08:43 AM PST

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It's called hyperbole.

pageC4

07/01/2014 - 09:06 AM PST

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Pierce should be looked at with caution. With his age he is more prone to suffer chronic injury, and I'm sure his skills won't be what they once were. That being said we are at somewhat of a disadvantage with the Sterling drama looming over our head. I think that it will affect the free agents wanting to come here, so Pierce would be a suitable player to have until this fiasco finally dies. If we do acquire pierce a 1 year contract should be made..nothing more so we don't hurt ourselves.

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 10:32 AM PST

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Pierce at a good price is fine. His defense wasn't bad last season, similar to Vince who is even a year older and played fairly adequate defense too. If he's at a good price, it's not bad, we have to be reasonable about our options. We're an over the cap team, the options start to dwindle.

We can say "well our stars should have taken a paycut", but in order to make any actual difference they would have had to take a substantial paycut that aren't reasonable at the moment since we are also paying DJ $11M and have other players, and we would still have to fill out the rest of the roster. We actually can't reasonably ask Blake on his first contract after being a rookie to take a paycut, and after he helped rejuvenate the franchise, etc. we would look like the league's most idiotic franchise.

Without Willie now, were at $68.8M, adding Wilcox, it will be like $69.8 (probably still have Collison's cap hold but I'm ignoring it). With a projected cap of $63M, we need to get down to about $53M in salary. A guy like Ariza seems to be floating in the $7-8M range, Deng supposedly in the $10-15M range, similarly a guy like Hayward if anyone wanted him, and of course guys like Carmelo and Lebron, much higher. Lebron supposedly wants the max anyways.

In order to get $10M under the cap for example, we'd need to clear about $16.8M in contract space. If you just waived Jamal, you save $3.95M, and I think it is a bad move to just waive him, but just to see. So now we need to clear $12.9M. If we split it between CP and Blake, CP would have had to take about $7.5M less and Blake about $5.4M less which would put them at $12.5M and $12.2M respectively, just barely being paid more than DJ who makes $11.4M. Let's say they just took $4.3M paycuts, so CP makes $16.8M and Blake $13.3M, then if we could get rid of Dudley without bringing contracts back we can get down to $10M in cap space. Like mentioned though, asking Blake to take a paycut is sketchy, and most people that say this think if CP just took a paycut we'd be good. Well if we keep Blake's salary the same, waive Jamal, trade Dudley for cap, in order to get $10M under the cap, we'd be asking Paul to take an $8.6M pay it and a salary of $11.4M, well if there are increases, he'd be at $11.4 this year, so even less starting off, like $10.8M. Basically we would have been asking him to make the same as DJ.

If he was going to make only $10.8M or so though, I think he could have found teams in free agency with more assets and more room to add players than staying with us. If he's making $10.8M or so, why is our pitch better than one from a team like Houston with Dwight and Harden?

Stars are already underpaid relative to actual franchise value, and market determines your value, so we wouldn't even have CP and Blake if we pitched such a deal to them. Of course this is in hindsight and win a lot of "if's" and it would have been hard for them to be projecting how much cap the team would need, and neither would their agents have been interested in trying to figure that out instead of getting their player the best deal possible. Also we have to to take into account that we would have had more money last season and that changes how we play our hand in the FA market and the contract demands players have from us.

Teams who already signed their main guys need to fill their roster with players whose production supersedes their price tag, and you'll get that with veterans or rookies. That's obviously why championship teams usually have veterans, and why highly productive rookies / young players are always a great asset for them.

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 10:40 AM PST

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He shot well during the season for Brooklyn.

45/37/83

52.9 eFG%

59.5 TS%

Actually during the playoffs too:

46/36/78

53.9 eFG%

57.3 TS%

tense2

07/01/2014 - 10:40 AM PST

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Not really, lol.

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 10:46 AM PST

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I'd like Pierce as a 6th man though who can play SF/SG and PF in certain lineups and moving Jamal to get a solid big man or another SF. I'd prefer to get a more defensive guy to start at SF, even if they are an inferior player.

I wouldn't even mind signing a guy like Thabo and starting him at SF to facilitate that. Thabo should be decent value.

tense2

07/01/2014 - 11:08 AM PST

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Great if we can pull off a Thabo (starting SG), Ariza (starting SF) and Pierce as a back up SF.

Oh, and while we're at it, Davis as a back up big.

sz123456

07/01/2014 - 11:31 AM PST

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That would be an unbelievable off-season right there, that's what I'm hoping for. As soon as LeBron and Melo finally come out that they're staying at their respective franchises, something like this could go down.

CapsNClips

07/01/2014 - 11:37 AM PST

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Still not quite sure about the love for Thabo. Last year he was an average defender with extremely sub-par offense.

If we can get Thabo from 2 years ago, then sure.

ClipperKyle32

07/01/2014 - 11:44 AM PST

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This is my thinking having a basketball team. I want players that I can say go guard "????" And I feel confident in that decision. Even sitting and watching the Clippers game this season I....

Last season Matt Barnes was a better defender than Sefolosha and twice the offensive player.

I'd rather just keep Barnes and the chemistry we've built with him than sign Thabo who's defense and offense rapidly declined to the point where he was getting DNP's.

Barnes can guard the 2 and the 3 and if our PG wasn't the best defensive PG in the league he probably would've been guarding some PG's.

Dunkathon

07/01/2014 - 12:41 PM PST

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If you get Thabo, he'll be a backup, not a starter. He doesn't shoot even remotely well as Redick, and while his defense is still good, it's not good enough to compensate for his offensive shortcomings.

tense2

07/01/2014 - 12:53 PM PST

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Our Offense won't be the problem with him as a starter. Defense was our weakness. Redick off the bench suits his play better.

Dunkathon

07/01/2014 - 01:05 PM PST

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Yes, it will be. Redick's constant motion was part of the very reason the offense ran so well. Without him, it took a significant hit. JJ plays best when he has a willing facilitator in CP3, not a player like Collison who doesn't run a team offense nearly as well. Also, you don't want your SG to be a total offensive liability, which Sefolosha has been recently. He hasn't been able to nail even open shots ingame that well.

Besides, I would think that if you all get Sefolosha, it's probably because Deng and Ariza were whiffs.

tense2

07/01/2014 - 01:49 PM PST

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We can agree to disagree regarding the supposed offensive hit. I'll take the D.

If we get Sefolosha on a "whiff", that we'll be just fine IMO, especially considering the $. Really fine.

Dunkathon

07/01/2014 - 02:10 PM PST

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Indeed.

I also agree that Sefolosha will definitely come cheaper than either Deng or Ariza. Heck, he would probably only command part of the MLE.

Clippersfan86

07/01/2014 - 02:23 PM PST

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Pierce is welcome but only for minimum and only if he's the 3rd best pickup for us. Cannot put all eggs in a basket for a 37 year old player. He's great at times, but inconsistent obviously at his age. Would be a nice backup SF for sure. Sefalosha/Ariza type at SF starting.

Jerediscool

07/01/2014 - 03:50 PM PST

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He better come cheaper than Deng or Ariza! He's a ball sack compared to Deng and Ariza!

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 04:46 PM PST

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Barnes can't guard 1's, even at his best his coaches would hardly ever use him on a PG. Barnes also is just a little bit slow against SG's, not Dudley slow, but at the moment he's really best guarding SF.

Thabo didn't get benched because his defense wasn't good enough, he was benched because OKC felt they needed offense, but Brooks is to blame in that his system does not consistently produce quality shots for role players. Now that doesn't mean they can't get them, but if and when they do is sporadic and it isn't built into his offensive system. In contrast, SA a is the perfect example, and we are also a similar team, and generally CP wherever he has played looks to get his role guys.

Now, despite all this, against our porous defense, Thabo actually looked good. Certainly Memphis and SA's defense will make a role player in a poor system look worse and Thabo's defensive value is lost against Memphis when he's going to be guarding Courtney Lee and Tony Allen who are barely 13-14 PPG players in full starters minutes. It is contextual, so it makes sense that a coach would say let me get some more shooting since limiting those guys isn't going to be the key to me winning.

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 04:48 PM PST

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What's the projection, about a quarter of Ariza's salary and 1/5th of Deng's?

namzug

07/01/2014 - 05:50 PM PST

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Now in a case where we play a Memphis like team, couldn't we have Thabo (if we picked him up) guard Conley to save CP3 energy. I'm not sure if CP3 is down for that, but if he doesn't have to expend himself that much on D, I think those are things that could really be beneficial to us.

Jerediscool

07/01/2014 - 06:08 PM PST

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Probably, but do we need a quarter worth of Ariza or Deng? i just don't understand why anyone is excited about Thabo

CapsNClips

07/01/2014 - 07:07 PM PST

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The rumor is that LeBron wants to sign a Max extension for 2 years with the Heat with a player option after the first year.

If that does end up being the case, it make Pierce our best option.

If we can sign Pierce on a 1 year deal and LeBron opts out we would have a great shot at him because DJ's contract comes off the books and we can waive Jamal, Barnes, and Bullocks contracts.

Our salary would be at about $47mil. We'd be close to being able to offer LBJ a Max contract especially if Dudley opts out.

Pierce is BY FAAAR my favorite option now.

Agent0

07/01/2014 - 07:41 PM PST

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Even if CP doesn't want to, as a coach, at points in the game, you'd probably want to move him to a guy like Courtney Lee who can't out muscle CP and will require a lot less work to guard.

The length of a guy like Thabo also takes away some passing lanes and angles from a guy like Conley.

Jered, he'll make a quarter of the salary, but won't give you a quarter of the effectiveness. I think as a team on the cusp, it is about how we can plug holes and balance our roster, and Thabo can do that. In the last three seasons, we've yet to have a defender that was can put on either 1's, 2's or 3's and Thabo offers us that option while still being able to hit the occasional three point shot, and he isn't old.

Thabo is a player who is better used on a structured team. To be honest, SA would probably be the type of team that maximizes him, but why can't that be us?

AirGriffin

07/01/2014 - 08:59 PM PST

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It can be us and it should. People are TRIPPING if they think Selofosha won't be a great plug into our roster. Sefelosha is a good long defender and is active in the lanes. He will give u more hustle, steals, rebounds, and forced turnovers compared to the Dudley. I would start Sefolosha and have Barnes in off the bench. I think Sefolosha is a much better offensive player than people here make him out to be and we would mainly bring him in for defense. I mean is out offense even our problem at this point? I can see Sefelosha doing the dirty work against Curry, Parker and Westbrook in the West. I mean he's a younger Barnes but just longer and better defensively. Like why would we not want this guy? And if our offense slacks, we can sign pierce with no problem I think and wala, we have the best of both worlds. I'm even down to even keep Crawford. Dudley is the one that needs to go.

I would run Sefelosha as our 3 guard.

Paul - Redick - Sefelosha - Griffin - Jordan

I mean by all means, if we somehow get Deng or Ariza then I'm all for them instead. But if we somehow land Sefelosha, he's not bad at all. He's the same height as Dudley and Barnes. I don't see why he can't play small forward seeing how though he's not much of a shooter anymore. He can defend and just slash and it go the basket.

Andrew818

07/01/2014 - 09:40 PM PST

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I would only sign Peirce for the min or a very small sliver of the MLE.